At a time when graduate business programs are springing up overseas at more than twice the rate they are in North America, the Graduate Management Admission Council is expanding its global reach.

The council, which includes 160 graduate business schools worldwide, administers the Graduate Management Admission Test, which most M.B.A. programs in the United States, and an increasing number abroad, use to evaluate applicants.

The council has created and filled two new executive positions to help expand its overseas membership and identify new markets for graduate business education. One position will be at the council’s headquarters, in McLean, Va. The other will be in London.

Over the last decade, some 3,700 business programs have been created outside the United States, primarily in Europe. That’s more than twice the growth rate in North America, according to the council. The use of the GMAT abroad has grown as well because many of those programs are modeled on American-style business education. —Katherine Mangan